{"id":4173,"date":"2013-06-20T18:54:39","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T18:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=4173"},"modified":"2015-11-03T17:16:45","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T17:16:45","slug":"how-to-say-irish-words-like-aghaidh-bhratach-and-shaoirse-pronunciation-guide-for-the-red-white-and-blue-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-say-irish-words-like-aghaidh-bhratach-and-shaoirse-pronunciation-guide-for-the-red-white-and-blue-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Say Irish Words Like ‘Aghaidh,’ ‘Bhratach,’ and ‘Shaoirse’ (Pronunciation Guide for the Red, White and Blue Blog)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The recurring chorus that I hear in Irish classes, year after year, is “How do you pronounce that?,” or as students get more advanced, and ask it in Irish “C\u00e9n chaoi a ndeir t\u00fa sin<\/strong>?” (How do you say that?).\u00a0 In theory, at least, people could be asking, “C\u00e9n chaoi a bhfuaimn\u00edonn t\u00fa sin<\/strong>?” ([kayn khee uh WOO-im-nee-un too shin?] How do you pronounce that?), but it seems to me that the former version of the question is more typical.\u00a0 Either way, it seems to be a persistent issue in Irish, even after the basics are mastered.\u00a0\u00a0 And those basics, by the way, include at least 35 consonant sounds, 12 vowel sounds, 5 diphthongs, and 2 triphthongs, all of which must be written within the confines of the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet.\u00a0 In fact, since the letter “k” is almost never used in Irish, as discussed in other blogs, it’s really 25 letters.\u00a0 And since five other letters (q, w, x, y, z) are rarely used, we’re really talking about 20 letters to account for, let’s say, 99.99% of the sum of words in Irish.<\/p>\n

Not that this situation is all that different from English, which has at least 24 consonant sounds and 17 sounds for vowels or diphthongs.\u00a0 That means that at least 41 English sounds also have to be written within those same 26 letters.\u00a0 \u00a0However, if English is your native language, you probably learn such oddities as “taught,” “thought,” “laughed,” “raft,” “new,” “noon,” and “pneumonia,” relatively early on and then don’t think much more about them.\u00a0 And later, you probably pick up a few more of the irregularities, like “ptarmigan,” “ptomaine,” and “chthonic.”\u00a0 But mostly, whatever our native language is, we probably take its idiosyncrasies for granted.<\/p>\n

Learning Irish pronunciation involves not just learning at least two sounds for each of the original thirteen consonants in Irish but also two sounds for each lenited combination (bh, ch, dh, etc.).\u00a0 And then there are the eclipsed sounds, like “mb” as in “i mBost\u00fan<\/strong>” ([im OS-toon], “in Boston”) or “i mBaile \u00c1tha Cliath<\/strong> ([with full articulation, 7 syllables: im AHL-yuh AW-huh KLEE-uh, but often shortened: im AH-yuh KLEE-uh, 5 syllables, OR im-LAH-klee, 3 syllables] “in Dublin”).\u00a0 The good news about the eclipsed sounds is that mostly they don’t actually represent new sounds, just new ways of spelling them.\u00a0 One of the most stunning examples, to most English speakers, is “bhf,” pronounced as “w” or “v” in phrases such as “an bhfuil<\/strong> …?” ([un wil] “is, am, are …?”) or “i bhfidil<\/strong>” [iv-IDJ-il], ” in a fiddle”).<\/p>\n

Having said all that, let’s look at the pronunciation of some of the more interesting examples from the most recent blog (https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/an-dearg-an-ban-agus-an-gorm-the-red-white-and-blue\/<\/a>), posted on June 17, 2013.\u00a0 Since that blog focused on the colors red, white and blue (dearg, b\u00e1n, gorm<\/strong>), those three terms were covered pretty thoroughly last time.\u00a0 Here we’ll be looking at six of the other words that were used as vocabulary examples.<\/p>\n

1) aghaidh<\/strong>: this word almost rhymes with English “eye” or “aye,” but it is a little more drawn out, reflecting the fact that presumably the “gh” in the middle was originally pronounced (not in recent years, but maybe 1000 years ago or so) and then became silent.\u00a0 Not so different really from the “gh” in English “light” and “night,” although for different reasons.\u00a0 The final “-dh” in “aghaidh<\/strong>” is essentially silent, but contributes to the final sound being “ee.”<\/p>\n

The most precise way to represent the sound of “aghaidh<\/strong>” is with IPA \/ai\/ followed by IPA \/\u0263<\/span>‘\/.\u00a0 <\/em>But for English-speakers who don’t know the International Phonetic Alphabet, the \/ai\/ tends to suggest words like “rain” or “train,” which is not at all the sound we’re talking about here.\u00a0 \u00a0So, to sum up, for “aghaidh<\/strong>,” just remember that the “gh” and “dh” indicate the way the vowels are pronounced; they’re not pronounced as consonants.<\/p>\n

Similarly “m’aghaidh<\/strong>” (my face) sounds more or less like “my” and “d’aghaidh<\/strong>” (your face) sounds more or less like “die” (or “dye,” take your pick!).\u00a0 There’s a slight “ee” sound at the end of these words, as there is for English “my” and “dye,” but not as much as we might find, for example, at the end of an English word like “hooey” or “gooey,” or the slightly exaggerated pronunciation we sometimes hear for “by-ee” (as in “and I will sing a lullaby-ee,” at least as I recall hearing the Beatles sing the line in “Golden Slumbers”).<\/p>\n

2) bhuachair<\/strong> [WOO-uh-khirzh]: this word is the lenited and slenderized form of “buachar<\/strong>” [BOO-uh-khur], which means <torm\u00e1il druma<\/strong>, i.e. drrrrum rrrrroll> “cow-dung.”\u00a0 So yes, the unsuspecting “corn bunting,” as it is known in English, is called “geal\u00f3g bhuachair<\/strong>” in Irish, literally “cow-dung bunting.”\u00a0 The Latin taxonomic name is “Emberiza calandra<\/em>,” but that doesn’t seem to shed much light on the “cow-dung” connection.\u00a0\u00a0 The “calandra<\/em>” part means “lark,” and shows up occasionally as a girl’s name in English and Spanish, but not to my knowledge, in Irish.<\/p>\n

As for the “Emberiza<\/em>” part, all I can find online is that it means “bunting” (the bird, of course) in Esperanto and Catalan (!), which doesn’t really tell us where the word came from.\u00a0 But it does seem clear that the Latin name has nothing to do with cow-dung, either (the Latin for “dung” is “fimus<\/em>,” in case you’re curious), which is probably just as well, at least from radharc na geal\u00f3ige buachair<\/strong> (the corn bunting’s viewpoint).\u00a0\u00a0 For those interested, the “cow-dung” element in that phrase is slenderized but not lenited (buachair<\/strong>: regular “b,” slenderized “r).\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 \u00c1bhar blag eile<\/strong>, I think, not enough room here.\u00a0 But if there’s \u00e9aneola\u00ed ar bith<\/strong> on this list who knows more of the background of “Emberiza<\/em>,” and the cow-dung connection, I’m sure there are interested readers here who would love to know, mise ina measc<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And why were we talking about buntings, anyway, in the June 17th blog (2013)?\u00a0 That was to distinguish “buntings” (the birds) from “bunting” (stiallbhratacha<\/strong>) as in festive decorations, which might be used on holidays such as July 4th (i Meirice\u00e1, ar nd\u00f3igh<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

3) bhratach <\/strong>[VRAH-tukh, with a slightly flapped “r”]: this word comes from “bratach<\/strong>” (flag) and is lenited after the word “the,” as in “An Bhratach Gheal-R\u00e9altach<\/strong>” (“The Star-Spangled Banner,” lit. the “star-bright” flag).\u00a0 Why lenited?\u00a0 It’s feminine and singular and so behaves like thousands of other feminine singular nouns (bean, an bhean; cathair, an chathair<\/strong>, etc.).\u00a0 Although the first vowel in the word is “a,” a “broad” vowel (which normally triggers a “w” sound for “bh”), the letter “r” here changes the situation.\u00a0 “Bhr” in Irish is pronounced like “vr.”\u00a0 As for “vr” itself, yes, the “vr” sound is unusual but just imagine you’re a five-year-old child playing with cars and saying “vr\u00fam, vr\u00fam<\/strong>,” for the sound of the engine.\u00a0 If you can say, “Vroom! Vroom!” with a trilled “r,” you can pronounce the “bhr” of “bhratach<\/strong>.”\u00a0 It just looks different!<\/p>\n

The “flapped r” sound is like the very beginning of a trill, but cut short.<\/p>\n

4) l\u00e1imhe<\/strong> [LAW-vuh]: this word comes from “l\u00e1mh<\/strong>” (hand) and is in the possessive form, from the phrase “ingne l\u00e1imhe<\/strong>” (fingernails), which was used in the earlier blog as a reference to fingernails being painted in red, white, and blue for the July 4th holiday in the United States.\u00a0 The “-imh-” sound is definitely a “v” sound, a slenderized “mh.”\u00a0 “L\u00e1mh<\/strong>” itself is sometimes pronounced with a final “v” sound, sometimes with a final “w” sound, and sometimes a sound that’s sort of in between (despite being “broad”), depending on dialect.<\/p>\n

5) Shaoirse<\/strong> [HEER-shuh]: the lenited form of the name “Saoirse<\/strong>,” which we used for “breithl\u00e1 Shaoirse<\/strong>” (Saoirse’s birthday).\u00a0 It would also be used for greetings, farewells, etc., that is, whenever you’d have direct address, as in “A Shaoirse, a chara.<\/strong>”\u00a0 In a more limited sense, “shaoirse<\/strong>” might appear in phrases where the word has its root meaning, “freedom,” but this would likely be less common than “saoirse<\/strong>” on its own. \u00a0“Bh\u00ed s\u00e9 ag caint faoi shaoirse<\/strong>,” would be an example (He was talking about freedom).\u00a0 \u00a0For that matter, we could also have “Bh\u00ed s\u00e9 ag caint faoi Shaoirse<\/strong>” (He was talking about Saoirse, i.e. the person). \u00a0To say “the freedom,” there is a slightly different form of the word “an tsaoirse<\/strong>” [un TEER-shuh}.\u00a0 And that probably deserves a bhlag f\u00e9in<\/strong> someday.<\/p>\n

And finally, for now, at least:<\/p>\n

6) tsr\u00e1id<\/strong> [trawdj, NB: the “s” is silent]: from the sentence, “T\u00e1 an tsr\u00e1id b\u00e1n<\/strong>” (The street is empty, i.e. empty of people).\u00a0\u00a0 This word actually works like “an tsaoirse<\/strong>” above.\u00a0 \u00a0“Sr\u00e1id<\/strong>” (street) is a feminine singular noun and feminine singular nouns beginning with “s” do not take ordinary lenition after the word “an<\/strong>” (the).\u00a0 Instead, a special rule kicks in and a “t” is prefixed, blocking out the original “s” sound.\u00a0 Other examples include “an ts\u00fail<\/strong>” ([un too-il], the eye) and “an tSnaidhm<\/strong>,” the place name in Kerry anglicized as “Sneem.”\u00a0 Note that the whole definite-article aspect gets dropped in the anglicization of the place name, which isn’t unusual (Sneem, not *Tneem).<\/p>\n

As a generic vocabulary word, “an tsnaidhm<\/strong>” means “the knot,” and I’d pronounce it to rhyme with “time” (or to rhyme with “rhyme”).\u00a0 It would rhyme with Irish words like “aidhm<\/strong>” and “feidhm<\/strong>” (even though the latter has a slightly different spelling).\u00a0 \u00a0Do remember, though, that the “s” is dropped in “tsnaidhm<\/strong>,” so we could represent it as “tnime,” as long as we remember that that’s English “-ime” with the sound of IPA \/ai\/, as we just discussed (as in: chime, time, thyme, rhyme).\u00a0 IPA: \/tnaim’\/.<\/p>\n

What about the sound “tnuh” of “tsnaidhm<\/strong>“?\u00a0 Bhuel<\/strong>, that’s gotta be \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>!\u00a0 Suffice it to say that the sound doesn’t exist in English; the closest we get, perhaps, is “tmesis,” though that has “tm-“”instead of “tn-.”\u00a0 I suppose if you tried saying “ant nut” in English, and then dropped off the initial “an-” and the final “-t,” you’d have it.<\/p>\n

Bhuel<\/strong>, there are some fairly easy words in Irish, like “b\u00f3<\/strong>” (cow), “agus<\/strong>” (and), and “capall<\/strong>” (horse).\u00a0 But, there are some, like the six examples above, that are less straightforward and may require a little more patience to master.\u00a0 And a recognition that, in its own way, Irish is at least as systematic as English, possibly more so.\u00a0 Meanwhile, didja hear the one about the ptarmigan and the pterodactyl \u00a0in the chthonic railway (thanks, Philip Pullman!), who mixed up their “pneumonic” with their “mnemonic”?\u00a0 Actually, there’s no real punch-line there, just a bunch of unusual English spellings, with silent letters galore, but all easily explainable from either Greek or Gaelic.\u00a0 Yes, one is from Gaelic (more typically Scottish than Irish, although the Irish involved would provide a nice parallel).\u00a0 Which one’s Gaelic?\u00a0 An ch\u00e9ad bhlag eile?\u00a0 Go dt\u00ed sin, BB7B, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) The recurring chorus that I hear in Irish classes, year after year, is “How do you pronounce that?,” or as students get more advanced, and ask it in Irish “C\u00e9n chaoi a ndeir t\u00fa sin?” (How do you say that?).\u00a0 In theory, at least, people could be asking, “C\u00e9n chaoi a bhfuaimn\u00edonn t\u00fa…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[365321,111247,365313,4268,365324,255602,4312,4352,365323,365327,290030,229594,4435,229500,315773,365331,290029,290010,365338,38,365297,365336,2041,365333,4923,365328,365337,315968,5105,273080,365342,89881,365319,5256,365330,365329,365343,365340,365334,5419,27757,365320,33021,5663,5667,309504,290035,290032,306402,365339,5873,365335,365332,111901,365316,365317,11,290036,290037,365315,229593,6640,6686,290011,289856,290034,255724,365325,289970,365326,172872,365314,365322,290033,290031,365312,365318,32950],"class_list":["post-4173","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-a-chara","tag-aghaidh","tag-aidhm","tag-ban","tag-banner","tag-bb7b","tag-beatles","tag-bhratach","tag-bhratach-gheal-realtach","tag-bhratacha","tag-bhuachair","tag-blue","tag-bratach","tag-bratacha","tag-breithla","tag-buachair","tag-buachar","tag-bunting","tag-calandra","tag-catalan","tag-chthonic","tag-corn-bunting","tag-cow","tag-daghaidh","tag-dearg","tag-eaneolai","tag-emberiza","tag-empty","tag-esperanto","tag-feidhm","tag-fimus","tag-flag","tag-flapped-r","tag-freedom","tag-gealog","tag-gealog-bhuachair","tag-gealoige","tag-girls-name","tag-golden-slumbers","tag-gorm","tag-how-to-say","tag-ingne-laimhe","tag-ionga","tag-ipa","tag-irish","tag-knot","tag-la-saoirse","tag-laimhe","tag-lamh","tag-lark","tag-lenite","tag-lullaby","tag-maghaidh","tag-mnemonic","tag-philip","tag-pneumonic","tag-pronunciation","tag-ptarmigan","tag-pterodactyl","tag-pullman","tag-red","tag-rum","tag-saoirse","tag-shaoirse","tag-slender","tag-sneem","tag-sraid","tag-star-bright","tag-star-spangled","tag-stiallbhratacha","tag-suil","tag-tmesis","tag-tsaoirse","tag-tsnaidhm","tag-tsraid","tag-tsuil","tag-vroom","tag-white"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4173"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7249,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions\/7249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}